right now on "andrea mitchell reports," a meeting with russian counterparts after president obama canceled his face to face meeting with vladimir putin next month. is the end of the big chill? >> we are old hockey players and we both know that diplomacy like hockey can sometimes result in the occasional collision. >> there will be a press conference tomorrow. ask that question tomorrow. >> the president is expected to make some news today. congressional sources say at his news conference reforming and limiting those controversial surveillance programs. and weiner roast. weiner gets burned door knocking in harlem last night. ♪

and somehow he decided it was a good idea to vent to a reporter from london. good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington where in just two hours president obama will hold his first full press conference since april. he's expected to respond to the outcry over those surveillance programs according to congressional briefings on those reforms. will that satisfy critics? we have a super panel. chuck todd, chief white house correspondent and host of "the daily rundown" and contributor and host of in play, and a washington diplomatic correspondent and a senior political reporter. we know from congressional sources he'll talk about surveillance top of mind.

it's been a problem to the white house. he also obviously has the putin problem. what has their thinking been about the criticism of the nsa program? >> of all things on his plate, snowden leaks, the question of what does nsa do and what is surveillance about, politically had a bigger impact than the other various controversy. some argue are politically driven and others more serious than that. this one had the actual impact when you look at the polls it's that's where you see skepticism rising among particularly among folks under the age of 40 who spent a lot of time online and he has been getting a lot of advice, the president has, from outside advisers saying you have to be more public in explaining and if your going to defend and in defending. create more transparency and do these things. you have to get out there and explain these programs because you're taking on water on this

topic with a group of voters and a group of americans who are inclined to be supportive of you on other things. you can't afford to lose another piece of the american electorate because you have other things you have to push. >> and this comes after congressional leaders met with him for 90 minutes ten days ago. they told him that there has to be a limiting of the collection and storing of the telephone records. now we hear from reports today in the guardian and yesterday in "the new york times" and "the washington post" has had a lot of reporting on this, that the nsa programs are a lot more aggressive than even some of their defenders thought. >> broader and more specific going after individual communications in some cases apparently by name. that's exactly what president obama and many others in the administration had indicated was not the case. so he really does have some explaining to do and he also has to put it in the context of what the nsa does right and we've got

some other examples of the nsa on the job with all of these embassy closures and the threat behind it. >> and so this comes as the president is getting ready to leave for vacation. he's going to martha's vineyard with the family for ten days. there's a disappointment factor. he doesn't have immigration reform or notches on his belt if you will on domestic legislation before leaving. >> and look, i think if he said at the start of the year by august would president obama have something to point to to say we reacted to newtown, it seems like rearview mirror now. we talked about that every day. could some kind of gun control measure pass? everyone expected something to pass. how broad that might be we didn't know but he doesn't have that immigration is now on the timetable that looks like end of the year maybe for house passage. conference committee doesn't get there. path to citizenship a fraught

legislative path. there aren't the early second term accomplishments that i think many of us thought he might be able to wrack up given that he's coming off what is a larger than expected victory in november 2012. picking up seats in the senate. picking up seats his party had in the house. 332 electoral votes would have suggested more accomplishments than maybe we've gotten his supporters would blame that on republican controlled house regardless he doesn't have those accomplishments. >> and because you're in new york, maggie and not because we don't love you, we have to talk about anthony weiner because -- >> poor maggie. >> i got to tell you. i got andrew's notes last night and it was laugh out loud reporting. just in print. now we have video. let's cue up that video and have just a look at the way anthony weiner challenged a reporter

from itv. who knew. >> is it ambition? is it a hunger for the big job? the power? >> hard to take you seriously. i just have a feeling i stepped into a monty python film. >> he took on a german reporter saying you're happy to be here in new york city because we have indoor plumbing and you don't have that in germany and then even to the point of him doing a mock weathercast on what the weather in london would be for itv reporter. what is going on? is this a complete meltdown? he's down to 10% in the polls. >> when we say he has nothing to lose, he truly has nothing to lose. this is what it looks like. there has always been this strain of wise cracking with anthony weiner's campaign you saw at the beginning a bunch of us took a subway ride with him and he was mocking someone from a different state about where they came from. this is what he does.

i haven't seen it this aggressively. we're in the final four weeks, 4 1/2 weeks of what is a very, very volatile race. the one thing that does seem clear is that his numbers have slipped dramatically. i think this is not where he thought he was going to be. i think he is frustrated. i think he does -- the thing that's frustrating for him is he feels like he does have a message that resonates and he does. unfortunately he's not a great person to deliver it because it's not getting heard beyond all of these other controversies that surround him and now you see sort of the brunt of that. >> we can leave it there. he chewed out his staff in front of him and told andrew who is following him for our network to go get a hobby. you need a hobby. there is another bizarre race and that is kentucky. chuck todd, jesse benton, the saggy of jesse benton who had been a rand paul and ron paul person and in fact separately in iowa is accused of helping engineer the switch of prominent

states. >> that happens a lot. >> there may have been money exchanged. >> i'm shocked that in iowa that there's an industry of people who try to make money off of their -- that is sop and has been going on for decades. i'm also shocked that you have a mercenary operative. >> let me play the audio. he goes from ron paul, rand paul world where he is by marriage -- to granddaughter. he's talking about why he's the campaign manager for mitch mcconnell who supported rand paul's opponent last time around and then of course came onboard. he was not originally in that camp. this is the mitch mcconnell race and jesse benton is mitch mcconnell's campaign manager. listen. >> between you and me, i'm sort of holding my nose for two years

because what we're doing here is going to be a big benefit to rand in '16 so that's my long vision. >> he doesn't deny this is his voice talking about holding his nose as he works for mitch mcconnell. mitch mcconnell and jesse benton posted pictures to show they are trying to make a check out of this. it isn't a joke. >> it hurts mitch mcconnell more than jesse benton. mitch mcconnell is a measurrcen politician. whatever it takes to win, he does. that's been his m.o. that's politics about winning and mitch mcconnell wants to win. he decided the only way to prevent from losing a primary challenge is see if pauls would help. they cut a deal. the pauls are helping. is this a marriage of convenience? yes. is this a marriage of love? no one believes that mitch mcconnell loves the paul world or that the paul world loves mitch. they cut a deal. it is what it is.

it hurts mcconnell because it gives him primary challenger to say even his campaign manager doesn't like his politics. it puts mcconnell in this like he's another politician doing whatever it takes to get re-elected. not a good message right now in this environment. >> let's go quickly around the table. you're going to be there at the news conference. russia, putin, all this, is that what you would ask? what would you ask president obama? >> i would ask him something about the canceled summit with putin. he invested -- obama invested so much in the first term in trying to improve the russian relationship. it's worthwhile on so many levels. -- does this mean that all of that effort is in vain? can you ever actually have a productive relationship with vladimir putin? >> putin let it be known today that he sent a telegram of get well to george w. bush to emphasize there was an american. he got along with very well.

if you were in the east room today in. >> does he need john boehner? does he need to have a better relationship with john boehner? to chuck's point earlier about mitch mcconnell, he's not going to do any deals with the democratic led white house on a grand bargain or anything else because of primary challenge in 2014. does president obama need a better relationship than he currently has which is basically no relationship with john boehner to get something big done? >> dennis is working on those relationships. maggie, what would you like to ask president obama today? >> i would like to ask him to explain the contradictory statements out of the white house and from him about the nsa surveillance program and what is the case and what isn't? >> all good questions. i think -- presumably some of those will be asked. thanks to you, chuck. god speed as you head to the white house where it will be an interesting press conference. more rain is adding to the misery today in parts of the south and midwest already hit by flash flooding. firefighters had to rescue people from the roofs of their

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>> the relationship between the united states and russia is needless to say a very important relationship and it is marked by

both shared interests and at times colliding and conflicting interests. now, i think we're all clear eyed about that. >> secretary kerry and hagel are heating with their russian counterparts today. that was before president obama canceled a moscow summit with vladimir putin next month. thanks for joining us. this is a big day. i appreciate you taking the time. >> busy day around here. >> you have the russians there and the atmosphere as secretary himself said sometimes as in diplomacy is in hockey sometimes there are collisions and this is a week, a day, six months of collisions. principally over snowden. what are you hoping to accomplish today? >> our relationship with russia is like an onion.

there are many layers. what the secretary hopes to achieve from today and the administration of course is to continue to make progress or make progress on the issues that have been a bit stuck. we're not afraid of talking about tough things whether it's syria or human rights. but we're also going to talk about areas where we think we can work together to make progress globally. north korea, iran, and certainly talk about missile defense as well. there's a wide ranging agenda today. they just finished the second session and they are continuing the meeting shortly. >> do you think they will come up with anything on syria and the political dialogue which has been stalemated? >> there has been agreement between the secretary and foreign minister that the best path here is a political path and that a geneva congress is the best way to move that forward. the best vehicle. so they will definitely be discussing that. that will be a big part of their conversation and bilateral meeting that will take place later this afternoon. >> and what about the whole

dynamic between vladimir putin and president obama. putin sent a telegram down to texas to former president george w. bush. they got along famously. and there is clearly no warm relationship between putin and this president. >> there aren't nearly enough telegrams sent these days, are there? i think the decision that the president made and that the white house made and that the administration and secretary kerry all supported was that we weren't at the point in our relationship with russia right now where we would make significant progress to warrant a meeting between the presidents but we look at the importance of looking at areas we agree and disagree which is why secretary kerry and the foreign minister and secretary hagel and his counterpart of meeting today. i can't promise you what will

come out of it. it's more recognition that this relationship is important and we need to continue to work through it even at challenging times. >> i want to ask you about embassy security overnight a lot of people all but emergency people were cleared out of the u.s. consulate in pakistan and moved to islamabad which is hardly a safe place these days and there have been threat warnings and travel warnings issued. this is separate from the overall threat we think is more rooted in yemen. can you explain? >> that is correct. earlier this week we partly cloudy put out worldwide travel warning and made an announcement about the temporary closure of several of our embassies and reduced staff in our embassy in yemen. we're still continuing to provide services around the world. we are still evaluating every day when we can reopen all of these embassies but all of this is done through the prism of how to keep people, personnel, brave men and women serving around the world safe and american citizens who are visiting these countries

and these embassies as well. we evaluate information and make decisions day by day. >> to that point, are you possibly going to reopen some of these diplomatic posts as early as sunday or monday? >> reporter: many of them were closed through saturday and some longer than that depending on the timing of the holiday. we're currently discussing decisions on when someone will be reopened or final youtcome will be. >> you can't keep them closed indefinitely. no diplomat want that to be the case. >> we don't want that. >> can you fortify them to the point where you feel comfortable and confident that you're not endangering people? >> we know that men and women serve around the world every single day knowing they're in dangerous places. many ones we discussed over the past few minutes. but we make every decision whether it's security and how to

protect them and fortify security and fortify our embassies or about when they will reopen with the question in mind how to keep them as safe as possible. that's all a part of the discussion. of course there's a debate as you know right now or will continue on capitol hill about embassy security funding and that's really important and something that the secretary will continue to press with his former colleagues. >> there's been some criticism especially in print that the administration went too far in closing all of these embassies and that this was overreaction to benghazi. >> i can assure anybody who has that concern or anybody that's criticizing that our bar here is how to keep the men and women who are serving safe around the world. when there's a threat, when we have a concern, we take steps to address that, take steps to keep american citizens safe and i think that's something that people around the world and certainly american citizens should feel confidence in. >> jen, busy day at the state

department. thank you very much. good to see you. >> great to be here. president obama has announced this year's recipients of the medal of freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. the president says this honor goes to men and women dedicating their own lives to enriching ours. among 16 recipients, former president bill clinton and oprah winfrey and ben bradley. and baseball player ernie banks, known as mr. cub. this is the 50th anniversary of the medal of freedom being awarded first established by president john f. kennedy. [ man ] look how beautiful it is. ♪ honey, we need to talk. we do? i took the trash out.

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try zyrtec®. powerful allergy relief for adults and kids six years and older. zyrtec®. love the air. democrats have gathered in iowa today spearheading efforts they say to land a woman in the white house. that is not a surprise that hillary clinton's name is top of list. >> we have to have millions of

people engaged and ready for what will be a pivotal race in america's history and that is about getting everyone excited now about what i hope will be that moment in 2017 when we all get to say madame president to hillary clinton. >> emily's list, a democratic political action committee supporting women in politics is hosting the madame president town hall and joining me now from des moines is casey hunt. thank you for being with us. clearly hillary clears the field among those who want a democratic woman in the white house. it's interesting. she referred to bill clinton as a great leader but said i don't want my daughter near him. she later apologized but one of the earliest obama supporters in

the obama/clinton rivalry. she's now clearly one of the leading democratic senators, leaders nationally spearheading this today. >> absolutely. she was sort of the face, the draw for this emily's list event in des moines. who knew we would be in des moines at this point in 2013. here it is starting again. i spoke to mccaskill after the event and we talked about president obama and the fact that she had endorsed him in 2008 because the argument she's making now is that this glass ceiling really needs to be broken. we need to be able to say madame president, whether it's just to make sure we have examples for daughters to see somebody in the oval office now arguing this is the moment for a woman president even though for now at this point it will be eight years ago that wasn't the right time. >> do you realize that two years from now we're going to be in ames for the straw poll?

two years from now. >> i can't decide if that's exciting or stressful. >> it's stressful. trust me on that. let's talk about the rest of the field. they are talking about hillary clinton but who would be a possible contender if hillary clinton does not run? >> well, some of the other names that came up here of course, senator from minnesota and one of the more interesting possibilities i heard is senator elizabeth warren. there's discussion that even if hillary does run, the democratic party will see a candidate from the left and elizabeth warren would be a candidate that would appeal to that segment of the party. not to say she would step up and run against hillary if hillary does run but there could be conflict there and some real excitement for warren among those democratic base voters. >> at des moines just a few years too early but right on the story. it really is remarkable.

thank you. thank you very much for being there. and they are instant millionaires but a group of co-workers in new jersey who bought one of three winning powerball tickets still showed up for work yesterday after winning their share of the $448 million prize. local officials say the 16 ocean county highway workers are from toms river hit hard by superstorm sandy last year. in minnesota, paul white came forward. a father of two accepting his big check yesterday and said that winning the lottery was always part of his life plan. >> the description was their financial plan consists of playing the lottery. everybody picked my name and they thought it was funny then. who's right now? that's what i want to say.

president obama will be returning from his summer vacation ten days from now, 11 days from now, with a lot on his

plate as he goes into tough fights with congress this fall. joining me now a columnist for the daily beast and michael steele, former chairman of the republican national committee. great to see you both. let's talk about you're in the green room or something with the president and about to go into the east room today and he's going to, we understand, try to explain the surveillance programs and announce new limits and road manual for americans as to how this works and how it will not work going forward. what would you tell him are the key points to make if you could? >> well, he's going to go out there and say here are the safeguards we're putting in place. here are protections that we'll have. he should be mindful of the fact and i suspect he is that americans generally support the idea that the government ought to be taking a very pro-active stance to prevent terrorists attacks. that doesn't mean you should

read everybody's mail but it means when someone has a word in an e-mail or word on a telephone call that the computer in nsa signal can raise a huge problem. i suspect the vast majority of americans support that program. supported it under bush and support it under obama. >> let me just follow-up for a second here. the people who don't support it include his base. is that a problem? >> i think some people in his base and myself care a lot about civil liberties but the world we live in you have to be realistic and go out there and try to stop these plots and that will require a certain amount of surveillance and certain amount of spine. the question is what safeguards can you put in place and i'll be interested to see what he said about that. >> michael steele, has the president done enough, too little, too much. democrats and civil libertarians say that he has outdone george

w. bush and dick cheney on this. >> in many respects he has. he's taken the drone program and surveillance programs to the next level. i think he's taken them to their next logical level and so i kind of agree on this. i think that you are looking at an environment in which the president needs to go out here and just be honest. just don't try to be cute. don't try to cut the corners. just straight up look america in the eye and say we know you have these concerns. there are two worlds he has to contend with. the pre-snowden world where we didn't know what our government was doing and post-snowden world where we know they're doing more than we think maybe they should be or at least they told us. he's got to cut his way through that in a way that protects the civil liberties but recognizes we need to protect the homeland. >> and on a domestic side, he leaves without background checks or progress on immigration. he doesn't have legislative victories heading into this

recess when many members of congress then come back with even stronger back bones especially house republicans against cooperating with him. >> i think he said it very well the other day. if he's for it, they tend to be against it. there are people like john mccain now who are working with him and trying to come up with some kind of reasonable compromise. in some ways i think we're watching the same old, same old. an artificial crisis at home that threatens to shutdown the government or repudiate the faith in the united states. the conservative from oklahoma who has been there before know this is a disaster for republicans because they saw what happened in 1995. they are trying to work it out. you have ted cruz, rand paul, who i think are looking at 2016 and the primaries who are saying absolutely no. we can't work it out. massive cuts. get rid of obama care. the government is going to shut

down. the conservative columnist from "the washington post" and i respect charles. i don't quote him very often. said this is suicide. suicide is generally fatal. >> what about the recess and these town halls that members are going to be going to in the next couple of weeks? >> my attitude about that is if you don't have to have a town ma hall meet, don't have one. >> that's pretty honest. >> don't have one. send out notice to your neighbors and your constituents and say great to be back in the state and i hope to see you at the next fish fry. i think the town hall meetings are going to put pressure on members of congress particularly in the house to as bob just said, you know, not cooperate. and we're looking at a government shutdown come between september and october. i think it is a real possibility because they got to prove a point. they got to make a point.

i think they are wise to say you do this, you'll do it at your own peril setting up an argument for 2014 you may not win. >> you also have the drama going on in kentucky. here you have a white house chief of staff who are reaching out to the hill and mitch mcconnell is now in a situation where he's got a tea party challenger and he's got a campaign manager where he's got strong democratic candidate going after him. another challenger on his right. he's got a campaign manager who says he's holding his nose to work for him just because it's the best thing for rand paul, the junior senator from kentucky. mcconnell don't come back ready to make big deals with the president, is he, bob? >> he'll spend the whole month holding his nose when he's a room with jesse benton. i think he'll hold his nose if he has to go into a room with the president. we saw what happened last year to people like dick luger who

was a genuine, effective conservative senator from indiana. he lost that primary. mcconnell, if you look at the numbers, is in real trouble against the democrat. he could be in real trouble in the primary. he is, i think, going to have to stand his ground. that means if there will be progress here, it will have to come with a group of five or six or seven republican senators who are willing to work something out with the administration saying repeal the sequester, decent continuing resolution, raise the debt limit, and maybe in return for that you do corporate tax reform that's revenue neutral. i don't think mcconnell will be part of that deal. he'll be a bystander and i think he denounced the deal if it gets made. >> michael steele, even if those things come together and john mccain and colleagues pull it together in the senate, in the house john boehner is looking over his shoulder at eric cantor. >> what he sees he probably won't like because the heat will be very strong on him not to cooperate and not to get behind a deal with this administration

certainly coming out of the senate. you know, mcconnell is sitting there. he's going to take duck and cover for the next few months if he can. this was a marriage of political convenience with his campaign staff. so the reality for him right now is to stay as much out of the way and very much like advice to guys going home, won't take heat unless he has to. there will be no public expression by mcconnell on anything going forward because he's between a rock and a very hard place. >> michael steel, thank you so much. bob, great to see you. thanks for joining us today. you can call it pie gate. yesterday things got messy for savannah guthrie, our good friend during her interview with jim fallon with help of banana cream pie. she explained it all on the "today" show this morning. >> i had a pie in my face. do you know it's quite irritating to eyes?

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and get 0% apr for 60 months, now until september 3rd. that's the power of german engineering. welcome back. the obama administration tried to reset u.s./russian relationships but the issues between putin and obama soured the relationship all over again. thank you for being with us. we're here as the russians are in town and previously scheduled meeting of course and the president announced that he's not going to go to moscow for this meeting with vladimir putin. putin announced yesterday that he sent a telegram wishing george w. bush, the other president he worked with a lot who are happily apparently, wishing him well and get well from his heart procedure. that certainly seems like he's trying to poke a stick in the

eye of this president. >> it's unfortunate the degree to which this relationship has gone off the rails on what is at least partially a personal story. on one hand, the dynamic between obama and putin has never been good. unfortunately from his end, putin is a pretty prickly fellow. he's never going to open up completely. it's not his style. he doesn't like the sort of hail fellow well met stuff that american politicians tend to do. and then obama insists consistently including most recently on the "leno" show on talking about putin as this cold war figure as kgb spy. some of these things may be true but probably not diplomatically wise putting putin in a friendly frame of mind. >> that's rubbing it in making it clear the president really took offense and he personally asked putin to turn snowden back and obviously they were on the phone. this was a personal request.

and it was ignored and denied. >> i think the russians were in a tough position. i think, first, the chinese outplayed the russians and united states by getting exactly what they wanted out of snowden. they got whatever intel they wanted. they got to make the pr point about the u.s. has whistle blowers and human rights and privacy problems too and dump the problem on moscow's doorstep and then because of the way the u.s. tracked snowden there denying him the ability to leave anywhere other than to come back to face trial, the russians were faced with this unidimensional choice they do what uncle sam wants to force them to do which is hand him over to a treason trial or come across as the enemy and unfortunately they chose the latter. >> what about the olympics in sochi? this is something americans through the commander in chief are offended by. the crackdown in russia on the

laws that are going to apply to the olympians themselves. if they make any protests, even waving a handkerchief, they'll be eliminated. athletes have trained for years or all their lives for this moment. what should they do? >> it's a very tough situation. first of all, just remember that law as written in russia and law as actually enforced can be very different things. i think the russians interest is to have a smooth, positive diplomatically pleasing experience around sochi to show they can host an international gathering without incident. i think things will go all right. you're right. almost any opportunity under russian law as written could be taken. however, i want to point out that i think the idea that the united states ought to make an issue of this now is probably not worth the cost.

you have 145 million russians who are looking hopefully toward this experience where i think the engagement and exposure to a diverse international community is probably a very good thing for russian culture and society. if in long-term you want tolerance and inclusiveness, you want the event to go forward. >> are you surprised the president is not expected to meet with putin on margins of the st. petersburg g-20? >> i think that snowden may have been the provocation for this decision in the very short-term but in the long-term it's not a surprising call. this is a president who is very fortunate to have a buildup of unresolved issues he came into office and was able to pretty quickly resolve so getting the new nuclear treating done, civilian nuclear cooperation and doing sensible things on afghanistan and iran and then he encountered the reality of u.s./russia relations over the last year and a half that they're not easy and don't result in swift returns on investment and i think in a

sense he's lost interest. that's what we're seeing. it's not that he's so personally offended by the decision on snowden, i think mistakes have been made on both sides on that. i think the real concern is this a president who doesn't feel that his legacy will be well served by investing more political capital in russia. that's worrying to me in the long-term. >> interesting take. thank you so much. great to see you. what should the zookeepers at the national zoo name the tiger cubs born on monday? you sent us your suggestions on twitter including tigger and pooh. detroit and memphis. and you can catch carl's documentary twitter revolution tonight on cnbc at 8:00 eastern. you can also follow us of course on twitter @mitchellreports. [ whispering ] uh! i had a nightmare!

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so which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? one is breaking right now. chris, barbara boxer has now joined diane feinstein and called on bob filner publicly to resign. she's known him for a long time, but enough is enough. it's in his professional interest and in the interest of the people of san diego for him to get out of dodge. this is as more women are coming forward, including military women who were victims of assaults, alleged assaults, some rapes, in the military who were in a support group and claim that he came on to them when he visited them as a congressional member chairing the veterans affair committee. >> you know, andrea, i think you're going to see more and more of this. barbara boxer pretty harshly worded letter saying, you can't do the job anymore. remember, bob filner is somebody who spent a decade or so here in washington representing the san diego area before running and

winning the mayoral election. he's currently in the midst of week one of two weeks of intensive therapy. the problem here, andrea, is that if he doesn't want to leave, if he doesn't want to resign, recalling him is both hard -- 100,000-plus signatures needed -- and it's costly to collect that many signatures. may not happen until the end of this year, early next year. if he decides he wants to stick it out, stay in office, despite the fact he's been compromised as an elected official, it's hard to get rid of him. >> and the president, of course, in the east room of the white house friday afternoon in august. what more would you want than a presidential news conference before he heads out on vacation. so a lot of questions, but we understand he'll be opening with a statement on the surveillance, the nsa programs. >> that will be the big news maker. obviously, you know, he's not spoken that openly and publicly or extensively about it. i guess this is an opportunity

for him to do so before he heads off on a little vacation. my guess is that's the big news coming out of today. >> thank you so much, chris. have a great weekend. >> you, too. >> stay with msnbc for live coverage of president obama's press conference starting at 3:00. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." thomas roberts has a look at what's next on "news nation." >> hi, andrea. first, we are following some breaking news coming to us out of connecticut where a plane crashed into a home, and now two children are missing. a full update for you. and a shocking murder confession from a miami man accused of murdering his wife and then posting a horrific photo of her body on facebook. why he says he killed her, plus the lawyers assisting accused ft. hood shooter nadal hasan now fighting the judge's decision to keep them on that trial. all coming up next on "news nation." tens of thousands of dos in hidden fees on their 401(k)s?! go to e-trade and roll over your old 401(k)s to a new e-trade retirement account.

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right now on "news nation," new threat. u.s. personnel evacuated from the u.s. consulate in pakistan, but the state department says it is unrelated to the threat which has shut down more than a dozen embassies in the muslim world. deadly flooding. several states ravaged by waters. plus, intense testimony. more victims of the ft. hood shooter take the stand as the lawyers who are supposed to be helping him don't show up in court. hi, everybody. i'm thomas roberts in today for tamron hall. we're going to have more on those stories in a moment. we begin with breaking news. two small children are missing after a small plane crashed into a house in east haven, connecticut. these are some of the first images to come out. it all happened late this morning. the pilot is also unaccounted for. nbc's tom costello covers aviation for us. what more have you uncovered? >> this is just awful, thomas. this happened at about